9780443103247

This practical how-to guide provides everything you need to know to be able to run a ward or department within health care. You will find this book helpful whether you are planning to be a ward manager, have recently taken on the position or even if you have many years of experience in the role. Matrons will also find it a useful guide for teaching and developing their teams. Although the book is aimed specifically at ward managers, it can be applied to clinical managers of any setting including A&E, ICU and outpatients.

Jenny Thomas is currently working as a Consultant in Health Care Management and a Senior Lecturer at South Bank University

Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xv
Be clear about your role and responsibilities	p. 1
Be clear about what 24-hour responsibility means	p. 2
Be clear about what makes a good leader	p. 4
Make sure your decisions are informed ones	p. 6
Clarify your objectives	p. 8
Understand your legal responsibilities	p. 9
Be clear about your line manager's role	p. 11
Remember you are the patients' overall advocate	p. 13
Don't take on other people's pressures	p. 14
Balance your clinical work with administrative duties	p. 16
Be aware of the impact of your role on others	p. 17
Define and prioritise your workload	p. 25
Define your workload	p. 26
Organise your office	p. 28
Control your diary	p. 30
Keep up with your emails	p. 32
Cut interruptions	p. 33
Don't waste time with unnecessary reading	p. 34
Reduce your meetings and get the best out of those you do choose to attend	p. 36
Chair meetings effectively	p. 38
Learn to let go through delegation	p. 39
Be proactive	p. 41
Create a positive working environment	p. 45
Have a plan	p. 46
Set meaningful objectives with your team	p. 48
Be a good listener	p. 49
Feedback with sincerity	p. 51
Know your staff well	p. 52
Never talk disapprovingly of others	p. 54
Get your staff to take more responsibility	p. 55
Have a system for dealing with patients' visitors	p. 56
Deal with conflict	p. 58
Implement clinical supervision	p. 59
Manage and treat your staff well	p. 63
Get to know your HR advisor	p. 64
Write everything down	p. 66
Make appraisals work	p. 67
Know how to handle unacceptable behaviour	p. 69
Deal with poor performance	p. 71
Know when and how to discipline	p. 72
Actively manage sick leave	p. 73
Ensure all staff have appropriate training, development and support	p. 76
Inform and involve your team	p. 78
Implement self-rostering	p. 80
Make sure care is patient-centred	p. 83
Maintain your clinical skills	p. 84
Ensure that all patients have a full assessment and care plan	p. 86
Be clear about what health care assistants can and cannot do	p. 88
Eliminate long handovers	p. 89
Use task-orientated care only when appropriate	p. 91
Work towards primary nursing	p. 92
Make sure patients are informed	p. 93
Improve care through audit and benchmarking	p. 96
Don't accept poor standards of care when short-staffed	p. 98
Take the lead on ward rounds	p. 99
Get your budget right	p. 105
Know what your budget is	p. 106
Prioritise Pay	p. 107
Go through your budget statement each month	p. 110
Manage annual leave	p. 112
Manage your allowance for unplanned absence	p. 113
Plan your study leave allowance	p. 115
Get your staff involved in Non Pay	p. 116
Be more active in the business planning process	p. 118
Don't do anything without identified funding	p. 119
Meet regularly with your finance advisor	p. 121
Respond well to complaints	p. 125
Work on the content, not number of complaints	p. 126
Take appropriate steps before yon investigate	p. 128
Investigate sensitively	p. 129
Know when to stop the complaint investigation	p. 132
Consider holding a meeting with the complainant	p. 134
Follow six key steps during the meeting	p. 135
Write a good final response letter	p. 137
Follow up the complaint with action	p. 142
Instigate a rolling recruitment programme	p. 147
Review the post with the person who is leaving	p. 148
Write good adverts and application packages	p. 150
Shortlist and arrange interviews properly	p. 151
Get the best out of the interview process	p. 153
Follow up all candidates personally	p. 155
Arrange a good induction programme	p. 157
Continually explore all other avenues to get staff	p. 158
Don't discriminate	p. 160
Succession plan	p. 162
Fully involve your team in all aspects of recruitment	p. 163
Be politically aware	p. 167
Understand how health care is managed nationally	p. 168
Know your board of directors and their priorities	p. 171
Choose your meetings carefully	p. 173
Network - get to know the right people	p. 174
Be diplomatic	p. 176
Work with your director of nursing	p. 178
Get recognition for your work	p. 180
Choose your mentor and mentees with care	p. 181
Plan ahead for your own needs	p. 182
Look after yourself	p. 187
Recognise symptoms of stress	p. 188
Recognise and deal with any staff stress	p. 190
Get yourself a mentor	p. 192
Set up a peer support group or action learning set	p. 194
Train up your deputy ward manager	p. 196
Get a union representative or steward on your team	p. 198
Choose carefully whom you talk to and what you say	p. 199
Get over mistakes and move on	p. 201
Drink plenty of water and eat regularly	p. 202
Remember it's only a job	p. 204
Be a good role model	p. 209
Be smart	p. 210
Make a good first impression	p. 211
Always smile and be positive	p. 213
Speak clearly	p. 214
Be relaxed and in control	p. 216
Make your writing distinguishable	p. 218
Be aware of how others see you	p. 220
Set an example with your choice of language	p. 222
Never moan or gossip about others	p. 223
Don't stagnate	p. 224
Manage your manager	p. 227
Clarify expectations	p. 228
Work with, not against, your manager	p. 230
Act, if an important decision has been made without your consultation	p. 231
Act, if a change in another department has a knock-on effect in yours	p. 233
Don't be pressurised into taking on extra work without funding	p. 235
If you are doing extra work without funding, take action	p. 237
Keep the communication channels open	p. 238
Write good and timely reports	p. 239
Actively manage incidents, mistakes and accidents	p. 241
Know how to conduct a good investigation	p. 243
Manage difficult people and difficult situations	p. 247
Manage a difficult manager	p. 248
Deal with that problematic colleague	p. 250
Manage any allegations of bullying or harassment	p. 251
Manage staff complaints	p. 253
Make sure staff are not being used or abused by others	p. 254
Don't tolerate any form of racism or other discrimination	p. 256
Take action when staffing levels are dangerously low	p. 258
Break up any cliques	p. 259
Be specific about expanding nursing roles	p. 261
Be proactive with enforced moves or mergers of services	p. 264
Manage difficult staff	p. 267
Staff who refuse to look professional or wear proper uniform	p. 268
Staff who refuse to accept change	p. 270
Staff who can't seem to prioritise their work	p. 271
Staff who are lazy	p. 273
Staff who have alcohol problems	p. 274
Members of staff who don't get on	p. 276
Staff who are careless and sloppy	p. 277
Staff who manipulate situations for their own gain	p. 278
Staff who moan and whinge	p. 280
Staff who are continually late for duty	p. 282
Get the best advice	p. 287
Know where to go for legal advice	p. 288
Know where to go for professional advice	p. 289
Utilise the wide range of services from the chaplaincy department	p. 290
Use but don't abuse the nurse specialists	p. 291
Help patients and relatives access the right advice	p. 293
Keep up-to-date with risk management issues	p. 295
Consult policies, procedures and guidelines	p. 296
Maximise computer access	p. 297
Utilise the knowledge and skills of your nursing colleagues	p. 299
Utilise the practice development team	p. 300
Question external directives	p. 305
Is another link nurse role really needed?	p. 306
Has the bed manager considered all other options?	p. 308
Was that audit really necessary?	p. 309
Has your line manager questioned the decision?	p. 310
Are performance targets worth lowering the quality of care for?	p. 311
Are senior managers aware of the implications of their decision?	p. 312
Are consultant/specialist decisions always right?	p. 313
Ask your union steward for assistance	p. 315
Don't hesitate in contacting the chief executive	p. 316
Rely on your own common sense	p. 317
Index	p. 319
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Survival Guide for Ward Managers, Sisters And Charge Nurses

0443103240

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